Media Create, the market research firm that specializes in offering data regarding the Japanese videogame market, has offered its latest figures, for the week that ended on July 20. And, to the surprise of most commentators, the Sony made PlayStation Portable still enjoys a lead in sales over the Nintendo DS.

The PlayStation Portable sold more than 74,000 units, which means it actually managed to increase the sales numbers by more than 14,000 units in one month. The fact that a new version of the gaming handheld, dubbed "Metallic Blue", was launched may account for part of the rise, while the launch of an exclusive bundle featuring the game Gundam Battle Universe from Namco Bandai also provided a boost in sales. The Nintendo DS is in second place with sales of just over 54,000 handhelds.

The Nintendo Wii saw sales decrease by about 1,000 to reach 40,000 units moved to customers in one week, the cause being the lack of interesting new games for the platform. The PlayStation 3 is continuing its downward spiral, selling just a little over 11,000 consoles while the PlayStation 2 continues to outsell the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, by a margin of some 5,000 units.

Square Enix was the big winner when it came to software sales. It has just launched a remake of Dragon Quest V, which was originally available for the SNES. The remake is targeted at Nintendo DS users and has enjoyed huge first week sales, with over 600,000 copies of the game sold. Gundam Battle Universe for the PSP is in second spot, while, surprisingly, Persona 4 for the PlayStation 2 has managed to snag third place in videogame sales.

Japan will be an important market to watch once publishers begin to launch their game line-ups for autumn and for the holiday season, so we'll keep bringing you the hardware and software charts.